Learn the Two R’s of Effective Leadership

Early in my career, I began looking for information to help me improve my leadership. I knew there was more to leading a company than just occupying the corner office and signing paychecks.

 

In my quest for information and teaching on leadership, I purchased virtually every book, and resource that I could find on leadership.

Something was missing

However, when I would dig into a newly acquired book or product, something kept telling me that it was not what I was looking for.

Eventually I came to realize that most of this information focused on how to manage things, and not how to lead people.

It was not until the late 1990’s when I had a breakthrough. I attended a John Maxwell conference on his new book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.

That’s when I finally found the material on leadership that I had been looking for all of those years.

John Maxwell’s materials boiled leadership down to simple, people-centric principles.   Principles like…

“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” ~John C. Maxwell

You see, John’s teaching acknowledged that simply driving people toward the goal was missing an important opportunity to lead them through personal connection and relationships.

We can use Paul’s example when he wrote to the Philippians in encouragement,  ^“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”  Philippians 2:3-4.  NIV

As I began to develop my leadership, I discovered an important truth:

Every leader can experience exponential effectiveness by employing the two “R” factors.

• As you drive for Results…

• You also maintain and enhance Relationships

Results without Relationships

Most managers have a bent or bias to drive for results (managing of things).

Look at the Effectiveness Quotient graph above.   I have found that it’s not unusual for people to rate pretty well on Results and fairly low on the Relationships part of leadership.

Look at the bottom-most rectangle on the graph. It represents the effectiveness of someone who reaches a 5.5 on the results scale, and a 1 on the relationship scale.

If that reflects you, then you probably focus on the bottom line, the end results of your work and business.   Also, it’s fair to say that you don’t care much about building and enhancing relationships.

The smallest shaded area on the graph above reflects your level of effectiveness.

You have a couple of options to increase your level of effectiveness.

Focus on Results

Your first option is to work very hard to increase your drive for more results and excellence – work toward becoming a 9.

Now let’s say you worked yourself and others with great intensity to get there. You have increased your effectiveness by only 64%, and you probably have “dead bodies” lying around you.

Results with Relationships

Your second option is to work hard to increase your people skills and your level of relationships.

You might be thinking, “Bobby, if I take time to focus on people and relationships in my business, won’t my results suffer?”

That’s a good question! I have learned that it is not an either/or situation; let’s look at the graph again.

Let’s say that you raise your relationship skills to a 3. From my experience and my observations, your level of results will also increase, for example, to a 6.

You have exponentially increased your original (of 5.5) effectiveness by 227%, simply by focusing on the relationship part of leadership

Now let’s say that you raise your relationship skills to an 8. Most likely, your level of results will also increase, for example, to an 8.

Now you have just exponentially increased your original (of 5.5) effectiveness by 1,064%. WOW!

When you increase your relationships, it has an exponential effect… and your results increase as well.

When leaders learn the skills to develop and emphasize BOTH relationships AND results (leading AND managing), their effectiveness is multiplied, not just added.

What kind of books are you reading and webinars are you attending? Are they about how to manage the things of your business? Or how to lead your people? Please let me hear your comments by clicking <here>.